


Blue Ocean Sky

by NanakiBH



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M, Post-Canon, Self-Reflection, Spoilers, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-10-22 13:16:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17663369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NanakiBH/pseuds/NanakiBH
Summary: Sunlight touched the window sill. The curtains gently swayed. Another beautiful sky stretched across the peaceful ocean.





	Blue Ocean Sky

**Author's Note:**

> ***CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR KH3***
> 
> You've been warned, ok?
> 
> Alright, so this takes place in Scala ad Caelum after Xehanort and Eraqus sort of ~vanished~ off into the sky together. Nomura held me at gunpoint and told me I have to ship these two now. So here I am, doing his bidding.

Together, they opened the door that had been closed for years and stepped forward into the abandoned atelier. Everything was just as Xehanort remembered. In a solitary world that stood still, that wasn't so surprising. It was more surprising that his memories had lasted for that long, unchanged. After everything that happened, he expected it to somehow be different, but the picture in front of him was identical to the one in his mind's eye.

Their game board was still sitting on the sill, the pieces still positioned as they'd been at the end of their last match. It was his loss.

His keyblade wasn't there anymore. The space above the mantel where it used to be held was empty. In the scheme of things, that was probably the smallest price he could have paid for his actions.

All things considered, he didn't feel like he'd lost.

 

Eraqus was there.

 

His young face was so nostalgic. Watching him as he toured the familiar room, more old memories surfaced from the depths of Xehanort's memory, covered in dust. He remembered that smile and the monumental fear he felt at the thought of it being taken by darkness. He believed that darkness was the inevitable destination of all things, and yet that smile had endured on its own, untouched by any imperfection.

In time, he forgot that fear, and he became the one who was twisted by the darkness.

He felt different somehow, but he didn't feel like he'd changed. There, the two of them were able to look like their younger selves again, but his heart was still old and shriveled. Even though a part of him certainly longed to return to the days they spent in that room, he feared that the time had already passed him by. He took it for granted, and it was gone.

 

“This is great!”

 

Xehanort lifted his head.

“...What?”

 

Eraqus turned around in the center of the room and laid down in one of the sunbeams that streamed across the floor. “This!” he said, spreading out his arms. He stretched them out in front of himself and waved them around. “Ah, it feels so good to be back in this young body! So liberating! I felt like I was asleep for a long time... I woke up at just the right time, didn't I?”

Xehanort went over and stood next to him, looking over him. “Do you think that looking like a child means you have to act like one, too?”

Eraqus laughed. “Stiff as ever, I see.” He pinched the cuff of Xehanort's pant leg and gave it a little tug. “C'mon. Get down here with me. If it's just going to be the two of us here, you better learn to loosen up.”

“This is absurd.”

“It's warm and cozy,” he said sweetly, trying to entice him. “Come on, Xehanort. Step into the light. Or are you so full of darkness now that you'll be obliterated the second the light touches you?”

Some things really hadn't changed. His irritating persistence was still intact. Eraqus always got his way because he knew that he couldn't resist him forever.

“Fine. Give it a rest, already.”

Carefully, Xehanort laid himself down in the sunny spot next to Eraqus. As soon as his head touched the floor, he felt overwhelmingly tired, as if all of his exhaustion had waited until that moment to reach him. Even if he'd been liberated from his mortal body, he still felt the strain from his battle against the young keyblade wielder. Or maybe it was an exhaustion more profound than that.

“You look tired,” Eraqus said, stating what had to be obvious. He turned onto his side and propped himself up on his elbow to look at him.

Xehanort tossed an arm over his eyes, trying to hide his face from his curious gaze. “Yes. I... have a lot to think about.”

“Yeah, I bet,” he said, a hint of smug amusement in his voice. “That's alright. We've got all the time in the world to do our thinking now.”

It was intimidating, thinking about how much time they really had. An eternity, perhaps. It was too much for him to even comprehend. He became so serious about winning, he forgot why he was even trying to win in the first place. Winning wasn't really the thing that mattered to him. Until the last second, he forgot about how exciting it was to lose. For having taken things so seriously, he had an eternity's worth of shame.

Even with his eyes closed, he could feel Eraqus near him, closer than before. Still persistent.

“...You're embarrassed, aren't you?”

Xehanort sighed loudly and lifted the arm covering his face to lightly push Eraqus away. He pushed himself up and paced over to the window, leaving Eraqus on the floor. “I made a fool of myself,” he muttered, shaking his head. “All of that, and all I really wanted was-...”

 

It didn't matter.

 

They had all the time in the world, but the time he wanted was already gone and wouldn't return to him. He'd been too stubborn to seize it when he had the chance, and he had the decency to know that it was something he didn't deserve. Maybe once, but not anymore.

He heard Eraqus let out a chiding sigh.

“Really, what am I going to do with you?” he said. Walking past him, he took a seat along the sill and began resetting the pieces on the game board. “You lose one game and you act like it's the end of the world. Did you think it was all or nothing? The board's still here. See? We can start over.”

Xehanort looked at him, trying to decipher the mysterious, mischievous glimmer in his eyes. Eraqus had always been that way, hiding the depths of his knowledge under the innocence of a smile. Xehanort was too old to believe that he was simply speaking figuratively anymore, but he knew that Eraqus wouldn't tell him everything he knew, even if he asked nicely. He played his cards close to his chest. His moves were always a mystery.

As irritating as that was, it was also one of the things Xehanort loved about him.

He didn't have to know everything. He liked being surprised.

Though he didn't know what good restarting would do him, Eraqus's words sounded like an invitation to him, so he joined him on the sill, sitting down at the other side of the board. His eyes strayed from Eraqus's busy hands to the floor where the light from the window stretched across the room.

“It was warm,” he said.

“Yeah.”

He hadn't meant the light.

The warmth in Eraqus's eyes had been too much for him to bear. It filled him with nostalgic feelings that took him back to the time when that precious warmth was the only thing he wanted for. He wanted to safeguard the purity of light, all for the sake of one person. He knew that his darkness belonged nowhere near that light if he hoped to achieve balance between the two.

That was what he thought, at least.

In that perfectly bright world, he was a shadow, and yet the sky outside the window remained just as clear and bright as it'd been in the past. And for once, he got the sense that even if clouds came to crowd around the sun, they would eventually clear to reveal the sun's brilliance again.

That had to be what balance really was – not a separation, but a harmony that relied on trust.

Those children were strong...

It wasn't easy to have that kind of trust. He couldn't even find the strength to trust himself that way.

He wasn't sure he would ever have the confidence to believe in his own goodness. He wasn't too worried, though. He had someone with him who was able to see the light in him, however small it was.

“I said I'd be there for you...”

Those words from long ago weighed on his heart. He'd betrayed his promise and hurt him instead.

“And I said I'd be there for you, too,” Eraqus said. “Hey. Don't let it get to you now, okay?”

His smile didn't falter for a second. He was really sincere.

He could have lit up the whole world by himself. Looking at him, that was what Xehanort believed.

Even if they had an eternity, he chose to commit that image to memory and tucked it safely in his heart so he would never forget it. As long as he always had a reminder of what was important to him, he felt that he would never repeat the choices that brought grief to others.

He shook his head sadly and tried to smile as well.

“I just wanted to preserve moments like this – the moments framed in brilliant, glowing light.”

Those moments filled with light flew away from him, and he covered himself in darkness to prevent himself from missing them. And yet, through the darkness, the light prevailed without his help. The time that flew away from him softly returned.

The chance he thought he lost was there, right in front of him.

 

“Eraqus, I...”

 

A hand was extended toward him.

He looked at it.

When he didn't take it, Eraqus gestured it toward him more insistently.

“Hold my hand, you old fool.”

When Xehanort hesitantly lifted his hand and placed it in Eraqus's, he suddenly found himself being pulled forward, over the board. As the space between them disappeared, the neatened game pieces haphazardly spilled to the floor and scattered. Eraqus's hand left his, but only so he could put both of his arms around his waist. At that point, Xehanort was left floundering, unsure what he was supposed to do with his hands.

Eraqus raised an eyebrow at him and smirked. “Oh, please,” he said, rolling his eyes.

Swallowing his nerves along with his pride, Xehanort gingerly rested his arms over his shoulders.

“Is this... a hug?”

He could feel his warmth.

It was nice.

“You act like you've never been hugged before,” Eraqus joked. However, after a few noticeable seconds of silence, his shoulders jumped and his eyes went wide. “Wait. You're kidding. Nobody's ever hugged you?”

Unfortunately, he was correct. Xehanort figured that further silence would suffice for an answer.

“Oh dear... I should've hugged you sooner. Imagine all the trouble that could've been avoided!”

Xehanort narrowed his eyes. “Is that really something to joke about?”

“If we don't learn to laugh at ourselves now, we'll be miserable. Do you want to be miserable?”

“You really are your same old self...”

Eraqus gave a wise nod.

After everything, if he learned anything from those children, it was the importance of the present. Moments were meant to be fleeting. If he spent his time trying to protect the moments he loved, they would only continue to slip away from him. If what they had was an eternity, then he wanted to take the time to value every second that was in front of him. It wasn't what he deserved, but he owed it to those young people for the time he stole from them.

He owed it to them to muster an ounce of the courage they showed him.

So, he put more confidence into his embrace and held Eraqus tightly.

Eraqus leaned against him and sighed contentedly as he rested his head against his shoulder.

After a comfortable moment, Eraqus put his hands on Xehanort's shoulders and leaned back enough to look at his face.

“Welcome back,” he said.

Xehanort faced him without looking away and found it easier to smile, the warmth in Eraqus's expression reaching his heart.

“I won't go anywhere this time,” he promised. “I'll be satisfied to be wherever you are.”

It was good to be back.


End file.
